Renewable Heat Incentive and Renewable Fuel Standards: A Review

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INTRODUCTION
Production of pollutants including carbon emission can be attributed to the type of fuel that is
normally put into use. The rate of production has been increased by the industrial growth in
developing countries. In order to have the impact of these gases reduced, most of the countries
have enacted regulations that have since helped to conserve the environment. Some of these
initiatives are evident in countries like the United States of America and the United Kingdom.
The Renewable Heat Incentive commonly known as RHI was started in the year 2011 to assist in
boosting the rates of low carbon and renewable heating in the UK. United States has equally
adopted a program of Renewable Fuel Standards commonly known as RFS(Bailey, 2017). This
kind of program requires the transportation system of the US to use only those fuels that contain
a minimum volume of fuel that can be renewed. The establishment of RFS was done by the
Energy Policy Act of the years 2005. The expansion of the same policies was done in the year
2007 by the introduction of Energy Independence and Scrutiny. In the by the year 2006, the
initiative had exploited d over 4 billion gallons of the renewable sources of fuel. The aim of this
project is to meet over 36billion by the year 2022.
This initiative however has since failed to meet the objectives for which it was started. The
initiative was expected to provide the value of money equivalent to $23 billion. The design of the
Renewable Heat Incentive was to encourage businesses and households to switch from heating
systems using fossil fuels to other alternatives with little carbon emission(Börzel 2017). The
participants in this particular project are provided with the funds to invest in other technologies
like the used of heat pumps, boilers, and aerobic digester plants. Most of these systems are
capable of producing methane gasses that are injected into the grid system of the state. The cost
of reduction of RHI is usually met by the taxpayers of the United Kingdom through the exercise

of taxation. Both RFS of USA and RHI of the UK work in the complement of the policies and
terms of Paris Agreement.
LITERATURE REVIEW
The Paris Climate Deal COP21
This deal unites all the nations of the world in a single agreement in dealing with the changes in
the climate. It has been done for the first time ever since in history. Many observers have
regarded it as history of consensus by nearly 200 countries to cut the emission of greenhouse
gases. Prior to the existence of this kind of agreement, there was the Kyoto protocol that was
established in the year 1997. The aim was to set targets for cutting emissions but most countries
failed to comply and the US pulled out of the same. Scholars have argued that the agreement of
Paris must be stepped up if it is really interested in addressing the ever-rising temperatures of the
globe. The agreements have a good structured program and layout roadmap that will assist to
speed up the progress.
Key Elements of the Agreements/EU target of climate
o To have the global temperatures kept well below 2 degrees as compared to the commonly
known pre-industrial times and strives to have even a lower level of 1.5 degrees.
o To reduce the quantity of the greenhouse gases that are emitted by the activities of human
beings to the level that can be absorbed by the trees and oceans beginning at some point
between the years 2050 and 2100.
o To conduct a review of the contribution of each and every state in the cutting down of
emissions afar a period of every 5 years.

o The rich countries to assist the poor states by facilitating the provision of climate funds to
be used in the adoption of renewable energy initiative and address to the climatic change.
The relevance of RHI and RFS to Paris agreement.
These suggestions of Paris agreements will remain mere paperwork should they fail to be put
into practice. The participant countries are therefore expected to develop initiatives that help in
the implementation of this program. For countries like the UK and USA very robust programs of
RHI and RFS have been developed in these countries respectively. These ideas are expected to
spread and become the subject of adoption to other member countries(Bosserhoff et al.2014).
Financial Resources and Methodology
The cost of reduction of RHI is usually met by the taxpayers of the United Kingdom through the
exercise of taxation. Both RFS of USA and RHI of the UK work in the complement of the
policies and terms of Paris Agreement. The main goal of the Paris agreement has been to prevent
what has been regarded by scientists as irreversible and dangerous levels of the changes in the
climate. This has been judged to be reached at around 2 degrees Celsius.This was regarded to be
the central point to this particular agreement.Research indicates that the world is almost half this
digit. Most countries argued for a tougher target of 1.5 degrees. This kind of argument included
the leaders of the low-lying countries that affect sea levels that are subject to fluctuations as
global warming continues(Davies 2017).
In the entire process of negotiation, the sticking point has been money. The countries that are
developing have maintained that they actually need technical assistance and finance to leapfrog
fossil fuels. This will enable them to adopt immediately the use of renewable sources of energy.
These countries have currently been promised over US$100bn funding for every year till 2025. It